Investing in an Integrated Social Registry for Nepal

Submitted by pmassetti on
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worldbank.org (14.02.2023) Imagine this scenario. A mother delivers a child at a health facility. When the birth is recorded in the health information system, it notifies the ward office. The mother receives a call from the ward office to register her child’s birth. At the time of birth registration, she learns if the child is eligible to receive a child nutrition grant. She also receives information about vaccinations and early childhood education. The birth registration system is linked to a household registry. Each new birth also updates the household database providing the palika with an overview of all households and individuals at any time. Such seamless access to services and information about benefits and services is unfortunately not quite what mothers face in Nepal.  The lack of linkages is apparent if we just look at rates of facility delivery (77.5 percent) compared to birth registration before 12 months at (59.5 percent). That means over 17 percent of births that occur at health facilities are not registered in the first 12 months. One reason, among many, for low birth registration is a lack integration both at the front-end (point of service delivery) and the back-end (information system).  Nepal is now working to establish an Integrated Social Registry which can serve as a platform to link across social protection programs and information systems and help address this issue, among several others. 

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